Vonnie Winslow Crist's Blog

Happy Birthday Lewis Carroll

On January 27, 1832, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born in Daresbury, England. Better known to readers (including me) as Lewis Carroll, he spun one of the most popular stories of the Victorian era, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

It is no wonder Lewis Carroll developed into a storyteller – he was the eldest son in a family of 11 children. As the eldest daughter of 4 girls, I, too, developed storytelling abilities while trying to entertain my younger sisters – so I can identify with a part of his writer’s journey.

But Lewis Carroll’s most famous world – Wonderland – was born not from telling his younger siblings stories, but from telling tales to Alice Liddell and her sisters, daughters of George Liddell. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865 and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found Then was published in 1871.

Though I imagine Lewis Carroll would be surprised by Walt Disney’s interpretation of his book and the more recent films staring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, I suspect he’d be delighted to see his imaginary world come to life on the screen.

2 Responses

I remember reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in college. It’s where I became acquainted with the spelling G-R-Y-P-H-O-N for the mythical creature, which is the spelling I chose to use in my own story.